Google Awarded Patent for Self-Driving Car

Google's "driverless car": Photo from Edmunds Inside Line

Just when you thought you've understood Google's drive for innovation, the sly foxes from Mountain View come out with a surprise. Their most recent endeavor involves a self-driving automobile. According to an online BBC report, the US Patent Office has given Google a patent for just such a vehicle. The invention is hardly a bolt from the blue, as Google has been experimenting with this idea for a number of years. "The vehicles," the BBC story notes, "combine artificial intelligence with the firm's Google Street View maps as well as video cameras and a range of sensors."

Google, however, has not yet invented a self-paying vehicle.